OAKLAND — When Bobbe Norrise walked into her first yoga class at Studio One in Oakland back in 1970, she was the only African-American student in the class. Yoga had not yet gone mainstream. There weren’t many yoga studios, and black practitioners were few and far between.

Norrise would blaze a trail through the white yoga world. She became the first black yoga teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, spreading the gospel about the therapeutic effects of the Eastern practice to African-Americans. An internationally respected yoga master for more than four decades, Norrise died May 24. Respecting her wishes, her family did not release her age.

“She is definitely someone who from birth to transition was very rooted in her values around the best way for her to live her authentic life,” said Norrise’s daughter Cardum Harmon . “Even at the end, hospice wanted to ease her through her transition but she refused medical intervention because she wanted to stay aligned with what was important to her — the integrity of the holistic life.”

In an interview with the Oakland Tribune in 2011, Norrise said she discovered yoga while going through a painful divorce and got hooked.

“I floated out,” she said at the time. “I remember walking out to my car, I felt such ease and lightness.”

Norrise had found her calling. She became a certified Iyengar instructor and taught Hatha Yoga for more than 20 years at San Francisco State. She published “Easy Yoga for Busy People,” a series of home practice guides.

Norrise started out teaching classes in a church on Webster Street. Though she welcomed everyone, she reached out to African-Americans in particular she told the paper, because many saw yoga as an extravagance rather than a healthy lifestyle choice.

Bay Area yoga teacher Patty Hirota-Cohen recalled that Norrise and her late husband Cosey were among the first African-American students at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco.

“It was revolutionary in my mind what she was doing,” Hirota-Cohen said. “Back in the ’80s and ’90s she was organizing retreats to Sonoma and it was all people of color. She never promoted herself but there are so many people I know where Bobbe was their first yoga teacher.”

Hirota-Cohen helped spearhead an effort to get May 15, 2011 declared Bobbe Norrise Day in Oakland.

Jean Marie Moore, co-founder of Asana Yoga Studio in Oakland, and her partner Katrina Lashea , are among the thousands of students whose lives Norrise touched.

“I remember the way she greeted us and always made us feel so comfortable in her space,” Moore said. “I always said that if I ever opened a studio I would want people to feel this way.”

Moore remembered that Norrise and her late husband Cosey would prepare special treats for her students for after class. “We would have homemade tapenade on a piece of gem lettuce, or she would make special smoothie drinks in little shot cups,” Moore said. “It was a very complete practice when you practiced with Bobbe.”

KRON 4 anchor Pam Moore took private lessons at her home from Norrise.

“I was always amazed at how strong she was and it really inspired me,” Moore said. “She was always such a sweet and gentle spirit.”

In addition to her daughter, Norrise is survived by her sister Renee Johnson; children Cosey Ya-Sin Norrise and Khadijah Elgaili; and four grandchildren.

There will be a celebration of life reception for family and friends June 29th from 1 p.m to 5 p.m. at the Lake Merritt Sailboat House, 568 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. RSVP required. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be sent to the family’s nonprofit, the Total Health Institute, P.O. Box 10661, Oakland, CA 94610

Tammerlin Drummond is a reporter covering East Bay culture and a former columnist and editorial writer for the Bay Area News Group. Drummond was a 2014 Nieman fellow. She won a Sigma Delta Chi Award for a series on Oakland’s child prostitution epidemic and was a finalist for a California Newspaper Publisher’s award for an editorial investigation of elder financial abuse. She is a former Miami Bureau chief for Time and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. She is a proud Oakland resident.